Life has a way to take us through many routes and places along our personal journey. At times dramatic events are the ones to move us forward or bury us alive; love and death come to mind.

To me love is the force that make all things possible, without love there is no life. But today I want to talk about death.

Death is the reality we all need to face at one time or another but that we many times choose to ignore. Nobody prepare us for the experience and each death encounter is different from the next. I’ve heard that the book Preparation for Death is an excellent one in this regard. Every time I come face to face with death is an opportunity to welcome the reality that pain and sorrow is an integral part of life, it’s life changing. It’s also a reminder that this is not our home, it’s the battle ground for our soul.

When someone dies, not only the person’s life goes through our mind but our very own existence up to that point. The experience transform us. We question why it had to happen? What are we still doing here? What is the reason for our existence? When will our time come? What memory of us would we leave behind? In a dramatic encounter with death even our own spirit can feel shattered and the light of hope and joy that once was part of our life leave us for a while, sometimes forever.

Faith is what helps deal with death, as Christians we know that death is a process towards a new life, not the end. We feel lost because we can’t see the person anymore and we long to hear their voice, but they still exist, they have been transformed and one day we will be reunited with them. One consolation is that the person won’t have to continue with their earthly struggle, the one we have to endure still and in the case of a long painful sickness, they are not suffering anymore. Even then not all of that justifies their parting from our life, all we can do is trust and believe in the promises made to us by God.

The best thing we can do with this experience is to let it transform us in a positive way; treasuring and living every moment of our life realizing that our life could end at any given moment. Doing our best to live our earthly mission today and don’t leave anything for tomorrow. Embracing life with passion and joy, being true to who we are and what we stand for. Like Paulo Coelho says: Die Living.

Time has been kind to The Magician (NBC, 1973-1974), the offbeat action drama starring Bill Bixby as Anthony Blake, a modern-day Count of Monte Cristo who, after clearly his name after years of imprisonment on a false espionage charge, uses his vast wealth and resources to help other victims of injustice. Unlike most television crime stoppers, Blake didn’t carry a gun – in fact, he abhorred violence, relying instead on his skills as a magician as his only arsenal against evil.

Despite its intriguing premise, not to mention the star power of leading man Bill Bixby, the series was a marginal success at best – if indeed a series whose network run lasted but 21 episodes can be construed a success. And yet, The Magician has lived on since its cancellation, finding new audiences in overseas syndication and on U.S. cable television, while sparking a renewed interest in the performance of magic over the past 30 years. In that respect, despite its limited number of episodes, The Magician continues to have the kind of far-reaching impact that few television shows ever achieve.

We paid tribute to The Magicianearlier this week on Talking Television with Dave White, from its uneven network run in 1973 to its ongoing legacy today – a legacy that, as our guest J. Kingston Pierce noted on the program, no doubt received a boost in 1994 when it became permanently part of the X Filesmythology). We also announced the URL for the online petition asking Paramount Studios to formally release The Magician in DVD; if you wish to sign that petition, you can do so by clicking here.

Over the past few years, I’ve judged many writing contests–some large with thousands of entries and smaller ones, with less entries. I’ve judged short stories and novels–published and unpublished.

Recently, I finished judging a short story contest. It’s always easy to pick out the best entries. These were the ones with the most catchy or intriguing first lines, great character development, dialogue that was realistic, moved the plot along, and different sounding from each character, a background setting or settings where the story played out, an unusual plot with a satisfying or surprising ending, and of course, no grammar or spelling errors.

Unfortunately, there were those entries where the characters had names, but nothing else; making them talking heads; stilted and meaningless dialogue; no clue as to where the story takes place; strange punctuation especially with the use of dashes; pronoun usage where there’s no clue to whom the pronoun refers to; telling instead of letting the reader see what is happening. Several I read could be developed into a novel. The ingredients were there, though it would take more research and a lot of work.

One entry was a well-written, humorous essay–but this was a short-story contest, so it didn’t belong.

Anyone entering a writing contest should really pay attention to the rules. Not following the rules can cause a good story to be rejected from the contest. The same goes when submitting a manuscript to an editor or publisher–always makes sure you follow their guidelines.

I’ll probably keep on judging writing contests because I think it’s a way to help other writers. Over the years, I’ve had several accomplished authors who helped me along the way. Frankly, I’m not much of a short story writer myself. I have written a few which have been published in anthologies, but I much prefer writing novels.

Short stories are hard because every word should be meaningful. The dialogue has to move the plot along and reveal character. The characters must be described quickly and in such a way the reader can immediately picture them. The plot can’t be too complicated, but it must have a purpose. The ending must wrap the story up in a satisfying manner–or with a surprise.

About this Blog

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the blog where you can connect with the book authors.

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